Thought Snack: The Fine-Tuning of Low Entropy

“One other fundamental type of fine-tuning should be mentioned, that of the initial conditions of the universe. This refers to the fact that the initial distribution of mass-energy – as measured by entropy – must fall within an exceedingly narrow range for life to occur. Some aspects of these initial conditions are expressed by various cosmic parameters, such as the mass density of the early universe, the strength of the explosion of the Big Bang, the strength of the density perturbations that led to star formation, the ratio of radiation density to the density of normal matter, and the like. Various arguments have been made that each of these must be fine-tuned for life to occur (see e.g. Rees 2000; Davies 1982, chap. 4). Instead of focusing on these individual cases of fine-tuning, I shall focus on what is arguably the most outstanding special initial condition of our universe: its low entropy. According to Roger Penrose, one of Britain’s leading theoretical physicists, ‘In order to produce a universe resembling the one in which we live, the Creator would have to aim for an absurdly tiny volume of the phase space of possible universes’ (Penrose 1989, p. 343). How tiny is this volume? According to Penrose, if we let x = 10123, the volume of phase space would be about 1/10x of the entire volume (1989, p. 343). This is vastly smaller than the ratio of the volume of a proton – which is about 10−45 m3 – to the entire volume of the visible universe, which is approximately 1084 m3. Thus, this precision is much, much greater than the precision that would be required to hit an individual proton if the entire visible universe were a dartboard! Others have calculated the volume to be zero (Kiessling 2001).” – Excerpt from “The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine-Tuning of the Universe” by Dr. Robin Collins in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology.